Or like the broken Thunder, heard from far,
When Jove at distance drives the rowling War.
The Courts are fill'd with a tumultuous Din
Of Crouds, or issuing forth, or entring in:
A thorough-fare of News: Where some devise
Things never heard, some mingle Truth with Lies;
The troubled Air with empty Sounds they beat,
Intent to hear, and eager to repeat.
Error sits brooding there, with added Train
Of vain Credulity, and Joys as vain:
Suspicion, with Sedition join'd, are near,
And Rumors rais'd, and Murmurs mix'd, and Panique Fear.
Fame sits aloft, and sees the subject Ground;
And Seas about, and Skies above; enquiring all around.
The Goddess gives th' Alarm; and soon is known
The Grecian Fleet, descending on the Town.
Fix'd on Defence the Trojans are not slow
To guard their Shore, from an expected Foe.
They meet in Fight: By Hector's fatal Hand
Protesilaus falls, and bites the Strand:
Which with Expence of Blood the Grecians won;
And prov'd the Strength unknown of Priam's Son.
And to their Cost the Trojan Leaders felt
The Grecian Heroes; and what Deaths they dealt.
The Story of Cygnus.
From these first Onsets, the Sigæan Shore
Was strew'd with Carcasses, and stain'd with Gore:
Neptunian Cygnus Troops of Greeks had slain;
Achilles in his Carr had scour'd the Plain,
And clear'd the Trojan Ranks: Where-e'er he fought,
Cygnus, or Hector, through the Fields he sought:
Cygnus he found; on him his Force essay'd:
For Hector was to the tenth Year delay'd.
